Have fabric, will travel

Lily spent a few months last year in Ohio and Michigan making costumes for a Christian movie project, and in addition, made several good friends.  She met most of these friends again in South Carolina in May for another smaller movie project, and was asked to help on costumes this month for yet another movie.  This time four of her friends brought their supplies to our house.

Here's the crew doing what they do best, plus they've recruited Karen to help out.  Gretel is just enjoying the entertainment.

The hand-sewing party pictured above is more common than not.

Gabe using the serger on a non-movie-related project.  Most of the supplies you see in this view of the sewing room belong to the movie project including all those leather hides on the floor.

Josh at the frequently-used ironing station.  No, that's not a skirt he's wearing, it's a kilt.  There's a difference.  I think.  To be fair, Josh, Gabe, and Levi enjoy wearing period clothing whenever possible, and their kilt outfits are almost the only 21st century clothes they wear.  These folks take costuming seriously.

Corn in the backyard 2013, week 4

June 16

A half inch of rain on Saturday night left some raindrops clinging to the leaves in the closeup photo taken Sunday morning.  Steady growth this week left this plant 15 inches tall, while the weather has been slightly warmer than average.  An herbicide was sprayed on the field over a week ago, so we'll see if the dandelion in the foreground is affected.  Thanks for visiting.

In case you were wondering

For all those concerned, here's proof positive that we're doing our part to keep the environment safe downstream.  In case you don't know the full story behind this postcard, feel free to read it all here.

Corn in the backyard 2013, week 3

June 9

 

Our weather has been slightly on the cool side for week three, although the plants continued to grow at a decent pace.  Growing degree days totaled less than 70% of average for the week.  This plant measured 11 inches tall on June 9th, which is about the same pace at which the 2009 crop started.  Praise God for good growing conditions so far.

Traffic jam

Our road doesn't get a huge amount of traffic, and a disproportionate percentage is agricultural equipment, but today we experienced an annual phenomenon that raises the tractor percentage even higher.  Several times this morning, groups of tractors like this rumbled by together.  You see, the Tremont Turkey Festival is taking place this weekend and the antique tractor pull event occurred today just two miles north of our house.  Evidently quite a few contestants from the south find it convenient to simply drive their tractor to the competition, which makes for little parades like this all morning.

Maybe it's because these convoys don't happen every week, or maybe it's because you don't see this in the big cities; whatever the reason, I like it.

Corn in the backyard 2013, week 2

June 2

Although we had plenty of rain this week, Farmer Wagenbach's field drains pretty well, so I haven't observed any plants suffering due to too much water.  The plant in the close-up shot above was 6.5 inches tall on June 2, which is a little shorter than most years, but not terribly far behind.  Thanks for visiting!